Tis Better to Give Than to Decieve
by NekuSakuraba101
Summary: Kido felt unsteady today. Maybe it was because she found herself dreading today more than she usually would. Valentines Day. (KanoKido for Valentine's Day)


**I wrote this when it was nowhere near Valentine's day, so sorry if it's not that good, plus a good ending alluded me. Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Birthday to Momo~!**

* * *

Kido felt unsteady today. She gripped the edge of the kitchen in an attempt to keep herself upright herself. She hadn't exactly gotten a very good night sleep tonight, and some rude lady at the store's attitude hadn't helped improve her behavior much either. She dumped the contents of her shopping trip and spread them across the counter. Why hadn't she slept good? Maybe it was because she found herself dreading today more than she usually would. Valentines Day. She shouldn't have though, so she was irritable that she did. She hated it.

The worst part of it all was that the key to her worrying was Kano. Usually on Valentines Day he would skip out of the base most of the morning, come back mid afternoon, and then try to proceed in flirting with her. But this year was different. Why? Because this year there were other girls beside herself at the base. Mary didn't count. She liked Seto, at least that much was obvious in the way they both kissed sometimes. In front of everyone, and no doubt they especially would today. But there was Momo and. . . . And. . . .

"Stop it!" Kido snapped at herself out loud. As soon as the words left her mouth she looked up frantically, just waiting one of the other members to pop out, look at her with some confused expression on their face, and then question if she was still mentally sane, which she had begun to doubt more and more. But no such thing happened. She sighed somewhat in relief and turned back to the counter.

Kido hadn't felt this way before. Okay, maybe that was untrue. She thought back to when she used to go to public school; it seemed like a lifetime ago. She remembered Kano always used to get chocolate from the female students, and she should know, because she witnessed most of it. But why should she care?

Then a thought occurred to her. Could she be. . . . Jealous? No, she immediately pushed that thought out of her head. It was impossible, why would she be jealous? It's not like she _loved_ him or anything like that. He was an idiot, a stupid, useless idiot, who cared about no one but himself.

"_Now you know that's a lie Kido" _She could imagine him saying. And maybe it was, partially.

"_I love you, Tsubomi."_

Kido's eyes widened. _No, no, I don't want to think about it. _She shook her head to clear it of the memory. Today was bad enough, the last thing she needed was memories she'd tried so hard to forget.

* * *

"What!? What do you mean it's only Valentines Day? It's a lot more than that!" Momo demanded, clearly outraged by Kido's simple answer.

Kido on the other hand tensed at Momo's angry tone towards her which was highly uncharacteristic. She continued to hand Shintaro his cup of hot chocolate while still not taking her eyes off the other girl. "I'm sorry, was I supposed to say something else?"

"Yes!" Momo said. Kido waited for her to maybe explain what it was, but the orange blonde just stared at her waiting for her answer.

"She wants you to say it's her birthday today." Shintaro said coming to Kido's rescue. Oh, now it all made sense.

"Oh. Then, Happy Birthday Kisaragi." Kido said in monotone and handed her a mug of her own hot chocolate.

"T-thanks." Momo said and gingerly took the cup from Kido's hand, but Kido didn't know if she was thanking her for the 'Happy Birthday' or the hot chocolate. "I can't believe you guys forgot." Momo said, looking down hearted.

"But Kisaragi-chan, in order for us to forget, we would have had to know in the first place." Seto laughed and at the same time scooted over on the couch to make a place for Kido as she sat down.

"What? You didn't know?" Momo asked looking surprised. Both Seto and Kido shook there heads. "But Onii-chan was supposed to tell you." Momo turned to look expectantly at her brother.

"Whoops. Must have forgotten." Shintaro replied without any emotion before taking another drink from his mug. He didn't sound in the least bit apologetic.

"Onii-chan our so mean! It's my birthday and you just totally don't care, do you?" Momo whined and started repeatedly punching her older sibling in the shoulder softly, to which he was unfazed.

"Hmm? It's Oba-san's birthday? How old you turning, 50?" Hibiya, Mary, and Konoha had entered the room now, ten minutes after Kido had called them to come out of their dens.

Momo turned around on the couch to Hibiya who had made the question of her age. She glared murderously at the 12 year old, "No I turned 17 as a matter of fact."

Hibiya smiled smugly at her, "Ah and I thought Kano was the only liar in this place."

Kido sat on the couch with her own mug in her hands listening to Momo and Hibiya bicker back and forth. It was quite tiresome to listen to at times. Mary crept around the pair fighting and clambered onto Seto's lap, exactly what Kido expected of her.

"Why'd you give drinks to everybody?" Kido nearly jumped out of her skin as a voice whispered softly in her ear. She turned and saw Konoha resting his head on the top of the couch frame.

"Uh, um because it's Valentines day." she said, hoping that would explain everything to him. Instead he blinked and stared back at her blankly. "Oh right, you don't know what that is." Konoha shook his head. "It's just this holiday where girls give candy and stuff to guys to show their. . . . _Appreciation_." Kido felt so stupid explaining this to someone; she really had no idea what she was supposed to say. No doubt if Kano heard her he'd laugh at how dumb she sounded and tease her nonstop. Kido frowned. She'd managed to actually not think about him for two hours yet somehow her mind always seemed to draw back to him. It irritated her. Why?

As if the world had wanted to make her even more irritated than she was at herself, Kano walked in the door causing Kido to lean back even more into the couch and she raised her mug to her lips.

"I'm home~" he called, but stopped and gazed at the scene with a raised eyebrow. "What? Were you guys all having a secret meeting without me?" he joked.

The other members all turned to look at him and surprisingly Konoha was the first to speak up. "It's Valentines day." he said. You never would have guessed he hadn't known the holiday a few moments ago.

"Ah, of course. How could I forget?" Kano said grinning, but Kido had the sneaking suspicion that he hadn't forgotten at all. "I see Kido made her famous hot chocolate." he turned his gaze toward her and Kido was surprised to find herself feeling somewhat self conscious by it, but she ignored the stare and continued to drink from her already empty mug.

Momo stopped in the middle of her bickering with Hibiya when she noticed Kano's return. She left to go get her purse in the corner by the door. When she turned back she had five little decorative bags in her arms. "Now that Kano-san's home, I can give these to you." Momo started passing around the little bags to each one of the boys though she had an irritated face when she gave one to Shintaro and Hibiya. "Happy Valentines day."

"Hey Oba-san, did you make these?" Hibiya said as he turned the bag over in his hands inspecting it carefully.

"N-no, I bought them." Momo said.

"Alright. Then I'll eat it." he said and began opening the bag.

Momo glared at him, a vein clearly visible on her temple, "You little. . . ."

"Ahahaha! It's alright Kisaragi-chan." Kano assured her and patted her head affectionately, "Thank you."

Kido didn't know when the first straw happened, but thatwas the _last_ straw. She quickly got up from the couch, feeling sad and irritable, and started walking to the door leading to the kitchen.

But of course Kano noticed her leaving. "Hey, where are you going leader?" he asked in his regular cheerful tone which, right now, annoyed the crap out of her to know how clueless he was about her mood right now.

"I'm getting more hot chocolate." she mumbled back not even caring if she showed her sour mood to everyone else.

"Can I have some too?" Konoha asked from her spot on the couch. She didn't look back at him, but nodded before entering the door and closing it behind her.

Kido stared at the counter in front of her. It was ironic how she was back in the same spot where all these thoughts had come to her at first. She clutched the edge of the counter again, except this time her knuckles turned white from her tight grip. Kano had always thrown away all the chocolate he got on Valentines day when they were younger, maybe save one piece if he was hungry enough, but Momo's was different.

Now Kido felt stupid. Of course Momo was different; she was a member of their gang, and a friend. She was just getting jealous over nothing. But why? Why did she care so much? The only logical explanation, and the most painful, was that she loved him. Did she? It was the only thing she could think of that made sense, so maybe she did.

"Kido." Kido froze, her eyes widening. She turned around to see Kano, his back to her as he leaned against part of a protruding wall and. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Kido hesitated for a moment. How had he gotten in here without her noticing? Had she really that caught up in her own thoughts? But then she answered, "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"In that case. . . ." he turned so she could see his cat-like grin, "Can I have some hot chocolate too?"

* * *

"Ah, thank you leader~" Kano said cheerfully and took the mug Kido was holding out to him. Kido didn't say anything, but leaned against the wall next to him and watched him start drinking it, stuffing her hands in her hoodie pocket, and looking apathetic.

"So, you going back out there?" Kano asked and gestured toward the door that led to the living room.

She turned away to look at another part of the kitchen. "No, not yet." she mumbled.

Kano sighed, "I know you said nothing's wrong with you, but. . . ." he trailed off.

Kido turned to look at him. "Are you trying to get at something?" she asked him.

"Well, it's just, you seem a lot gloomier than usual. Kind of bi-polar at times." he said, "Is it your 'time of the month'?"

Kano almost spilled his hot chocolate when Kido slammed her fist in his side. "Ouch!"

Kido was rolling her eyes now, "You are so stupid. . . ." she said, "No of course it's not, why would you even think that?"

"Actually, I didn't." Kano said laughing painfully, "Seto said it was probably the more logical explanation than what I had in mind."

"And exactly what was that?" Kido asked.

The blonde shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe you were struggling with some inner turmoil, perhaps due to the fact that it's Valentines Day." Kido's whole body tensed and Kano took notice. "Am I getting close?" he asked.

Kido didn't reply. She was thinking again. Kano's words were true, maybe a little exaggerated, but still true. He'd always been there for her, when they were younger and even more after that, no matter how many times it seemed she kept hurting him. Rejecting him.

"Kano. . . ." Kano looked up from his cup and glanced over at her. "Do remember that one Valentines day you said you loved me?" She wasn't looking at him at all, but continued before he could respond, "You told me and then I ran away. It started raining and even though I rejected you, you still came looking for me. You said we didn't have to talk about it if it would just make me upset and that everything could go back to normal. But. . . . It never really did, did it? I-I don't know if you still feel the same as before, but I. . . . I love you. I-I always did, I was just stupid and jealous and. . . . I'm sorry." Kido leaned even more against the wall, her shoulders sagging. She could feel how hot her face was and the tears that were threatening to spill.

Kano was kind of shocked to here this from Kido. When he'd asked her about turmoil he was actually just joking around, mostly. He could tell it must have been weighing heavily on her if she was ready to just confess it to him, and by the look on her face it was probably hard for her too to swallow her pride.

Kano slipped his hand in hers and squeezed it gently. Kido looked back at him hesitantly. "I remember." Kano said, "And I do feel the same, as much as I did that day."

Kido hugged him, wrapping her arms around his neck with so much force it almost knocked him backwards. Kano was relatively surprised, but smiled as he hugged her back. "Not that this isn't wonderful, but I was hoping you'd kiss me."

Kido laughed, "You're lucky I'm giving you this much."


End file.
